Dawn and Dusk: Part Two

I watched in amazement for a few seconds before I realized I needed to hide. I dove behind an old and leaking rain barrel, being as careful as I could not to splash myself in the shallow puddle around it. I could see her from my hiding spot. She was looking both ways and possibly deciding where to run to next. It was rounding on ten-thirty in the morning now. I hadn’t realized I had spent so long hiding around city hall. The chime had gone off when I had been observing my friend from my hiding spot; after she had left I hadn’t realized I had sat there for an extra fifteen minutes. It had taken me almost an hour to walk to here, because I was being overly cautious.

I saw her prance off to the left. I knew exactly where she was going. My favourite place to hide in this area of Neovia was a little shallow garden beside an abandoned clothing store. Recently someone had bought the old store and had been refashioning it into a beauty boutique. I was a little excited for it. My friend would be disappointed to learn I wasn’t hiding there. Instead, I made my escape for Chesterdrawers Antiques. I hoped I wouldn’t run into the cranky elderly Tonu again. I didn’t knock over the sign the first time, so I made a point to be extremely careful now that I was in the area.

I got a bunch of confused looks as I strode up to the antique store. One little kid, maybe four or five years old was looking at me. He turned to his big sister, (who was in my class at school) and said “Which classmate is that?”

His sister looked at me and squinted through the frames of her enormous glasses. “That’s just Mina, Harry.”

They both waved to me and I waved back. Priscilla needed new glasses again. I’m sure she’d laugh about this at school on Monday. I walked around and noticed how many more people were in the streets now. It was coming up on eleven in the morning and everyone was about their business now. I had seen Mrs. Panch open the flower shop, followed by Mr. Sigmund the barber down on Main Street. I was also getting hungry.

All this running was getting to me. Sure I had eaten like five or six pancakes for breakfast, but that was at six in the morning when I had gotten up. I was so hungry I felt like Turmaculus. Our agreed upon rules for hide and seek stated we were not allowed to hide in any buildings. However, we did have a rule that allowed for lunch. Our favourite building was the crumpetmonger’s shop.

* * *

“Wasn’t she just in here?” someone whispered behind me as I made my way to the counter. “I think she was, but something’s different.”

I tapped the bell on the counter to get the crumpetmonger’s attention. I could feel the eyes and hear the whispers around me.

“Good morning!” The Crumpetmonger said as she bounced through the door carrying a tray of fresh and hot scones from the kitchen. “What’ll it….Oh?”

The Meerca stopped and looked at me as if she couldn’t decide on something. She quickly handed the tray to her assistant, so he could put the fresh scones in their display case and went for my order. I was in here so often; she knew my order by heart. I always got a blueberry turn over. My best friend got apple. Many times she would mix our orders up, especially if she was very busy. When we came in together we had no problems trading when she got confused.

She got me my turnover, I paid and left. The look she had given me told me that my best friend had been in here. Mina was everywhere ahead of me. Suddenly a large clap of thunder rang across the town. It made me jump so badly, that I nearly dropped my treat. This was no good. It would mean I would almost certainly lose the hide and seek match. When weather anomalies like rain or snow happened we had to go back home and continue there. The house was very big, but there was nowhere fun to hide. To home I went before the storm set in.

* * *

I had gotten home before Mina. I could hide, but where? I walked up the stairs and looked in the bedrooms. Too obvious! Closets and under the bed were also bad choices. Classic hiding spots were never good ideas. So I ran back down the stairs and into the basement. It was a large basement and off to the far left was an enormous rectangular storage bin. The top had been divided into three even squares and each had a lid on it. It was the perfect hiding spot. I could crawl from one end of the rectangular bin to the other. I lifted one of the lids and hopped in.

“Ouch!” I said as quietly as I could.

I had just sat on my favourite Yo-yo. I was wondering where I had left it. Mina and I had a Yo-yo collection. The giant bin I was hiding in was our toy storage. It was filled with plushies and colouring books and even one or two of books. I heard footsteps coming through the front door. The basement was good with acoustics, so much so that you could hear nearly everything in the house. I listened carefully. Yup it was my seeker all right. I heard her run up the stairs to the bedrooms and then into the upstairs living room. Her heavy footfalls like thunder inside the house. The only thing louder was the thunder outside.

She smartened up quickly and ran for the basement. I heard the footsteps plunking down the cement stairs and then across the concrete floor. She was starting in the laundry room at the back of the basement. There was no time for me to abandon my hiding spot. I knew I had lost the moment the thunder had rung outside. I was only delaying it now.

I heard coming back from the laundry room. Her footsteps died away right in front of my hiding place. With one swift kick she kicked the toy bin I was hidden away in and it made a very dull thud. It was a different thud than normal and she knew she had found me. Slowly I got up and revealed myself. I climbed from the bin and faced the mirror that was right across from me.

I was a white Vandagyre with blue-black hair and bright green eyes. I had a charm bracelet with a crescent moon on my right wrist. The charm on my reflection however was a sun. Mina smiled at me with my smile. We were mirror twins. We were so identical that even our parents couldn’t tell us apart. The only person who could was our friend Mordred. Mordred was deaf, but he was the smartest in the class and the only person who could tell Mina and me apart. Her full name was Wilhelmina Dawn and mine was Wila Dusk. We were often called the Nocturne twins because our last name was Nocturnus.

In class Mordred was always seated by one of us because we knew sign language. He would ask a question, we’d verbally ask the teacher and relay him the answer. This also made tricking the teacher fun for the three of us, too. The teachers could never tell us apart. Sometimes Mina and I would sit in our assigned seats on opposite ends of the room and the teacher would come into class and have us change seats, because he was sure we had switched on him and he was switching us back. it didn't really didn’t matter if he was correct in doing so or not, because Mordred would laugh and giggle anyway. The teacher would then ask him which of us was who.

I understood now, why I had kept getting in trouble today. Mina had been the one to nearly run into Kell’s friend and had knocked over the sign at the store trying to find me. Somehow, someway I was the one who always got yelled at for it. I just hoped Kell's friend had forgotten about us by now and wouldn't badger Kell into telling on us. For that matter, I hoped Balthazar had forgotten too. He was a nice guy; in fact he was very nice, if he wasn't in a bad mood.

I had lost, so it meant that I had to wash the dishes after dinner tonight. I didn’t mind though, dishes were easy. Since I was doing that, it meant Mina had to solve the math puzzle the teacher gave us for weekend homework. I was secretly happy I lost, I hated math with a passion.

It had still been a pretty fun morning. I couldn’t wait for our next adventure!